Last year, Barty and Dellacqua finished runners-up at three of the four majors, including at Melbourne Park. However, Timea Babos and Petra Martic put paid to their hopes of going one better this time round, knocking out the No.5 seeds, 61 63.

After suffering a torn adductor a few weeks ago, it was touch and go whether Barty would even compete in Melbourne. The 17-year-old struggled on serve throughout, and neither she nor her partner found any way to stem the stream of winners coming from the other end.